


no regrets (about the destination)

by orphan_account



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Adopted Sibling Relationship, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bisexual Male Character, Canon Character of Color, Canonical Character Death, Character Study, F/M, Father Figures, Gen, M/M, Minor Canonical Character(s), Poor Chuck, Snapshots, Step-parents, Step-siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-01
Updated: 2014-01-01
Packaged: 2018-01-06 23:49:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1112964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chuck Hansen gets in a lot of fist fights, grows up, repairs some relationships, and maybe, just maybe, finds some grace along the way.</p><p>(Or a life in twenty one snapshots.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	no regrets (about the destination)

**Author's Note:**

> played around a little with age and time here, but whatever. i have a mighty need for both team hot dads and sibling!mako and chuck.
> 
> also for your listening pleasure, every time chuck tries to whip someone's arse, try "beat down" by iggy azalea, and "adore you" by miley cyrus for stacker/herc because that's my forever song.

i. 

He doesn’t remember much from the actual accident. He can’t remember his mother’s screams nor the blaze of car horns nor the sickening crunch of metal and bone.

Yet, he still sees the vivid details of the moments before in his sleep. 

He remembers the name of the song on the radio that his mother sang to slightly off pitch. He remembers the smell of the sea breezing through the open windows of the car. He remembers the way the sun reflected off her eyes when she looked back to check on him.

Then he remembers nothing. 

 

ii.

The sunlight burns his eyes. A plastic neck brace bites into the sensitive skin around his jaw. The IV itches in his hand while a larger hand, warm and calloused, rubs his knuckles. 

His senses are overwhelmed. His ears are flooded with the rhythmic beats of hospital machines, the taps of shoes against linoleum, and quiet sobs. Every inch of his skin burns so much that he wants to crawl out. His heart is fluttering out chest. 

“Mummy,” he calls. His voice is thick, and his throat hurts.

The only answer he gets is a choked sob, and he knows.

 

iii.

They spread her ashes into the ocean just like she had wanted.

The mourners follow the two of them down to the beach. A long line of black stretches out across the white sand beach like ants. He limps dutifully behind his father. The sun is bright and shining, the breeze cool. It was a day his mother would have loved.

When they reach the shoreline, the water laps at his dress shoes. His father opens the urn, and the ashes dance in the wind before settling in the ocean.

“I’m so sorry,” whispers Herc.

Neither of them cry.

iv.

Herc gets a job in San Francisco in late August.

He chats happily about it to his son. He says that this is a great opportunity, Charlie. This is what we need, Charlie. This is a fresh start for them, Charlie. It’ll be a great experience. His voice only occasionally shakes. 

He packs away nearly everything they own into neat little boxes. Their things are shoved into the truck to be shipped to their new home. Her things are packed up for the first time since she died and delivered to her parents house like she never even existed. 

 

v.

Their house is yellow.

They live in this weird little neighborhood with all these weird little people in a bright yellow house. 

Loud rock music can be in the middle of the night coming from the house next door. It’s filled with German students and, according to the woman to the left, a convict. Two Russians who look make Herc look small live across from them in a pale pink house. Chinese triplets are constantly playing basketball in the back alley. 

He just wants to go home to his old life in a house that was a sensible color.

 

vi.

He’s a big hit in middle school or junior high or whatever they call it here. The girls practically fawn over him, his accent, the apparently “exotic” he spells the word “colour.” The boys like to play soccer with him, ask him if he’s been surfing, and try to no avail to teach him to play American football. He fits in just like Herc always promised he would. 

For the first time since his mother died, he’s almost happy. 

His classmates call him “Chuck” rather than Charlie or Charles.

He likes it. He likes it a lot. 

 

vii.

His dad and another man drinking beer in their little kitchen one afternoon. 

This man is a big hulk of a man in a neatly pressed suit. His dark skin glints in the evening light. He’s in the middle of laughing when Chuck drops his backpack 

“Char-Chuck,” Herc catches himself. “This is Stacker Pentecost. He lives in the house next door.”

“I have a daughter around your age.” Stacker’s voice is deep with a refined British accent, and Herc gazes at his jaw when he talks.

Chuck feels like this won’t be the last of the Pentecosts. 

 

viii.

Stacker’s daughter is named Mako Mori.

She is thirteen to his twelve and nearly a head taller. The tips of her hair are dyed a bright blue. She looks at him critically, eyeing him up and down. Then she punches him in the jaw.

So he does the most logical thing. He punches her back. Soon they are squabbling beside Mako and Stacker’s large oak tree, fighting tooth and nail.

By the time Stacker pulls them apart, they are covered in bruises and cuts and grinning ear to ear.

Herc shrugs and says, “Friendship is a strange thing.”

 

ix.

They eat pizza and drink soda later that week while they all gather around the Monopoly board. It turns out both Herc and Mako are financial sharks. Really it’s just a game between the two of them while Chuck and Stacker dole out their dwindling amounts of money. Besides Chuck is far more interested in the stories his father and Stacker, both pilots of fighter jets, swap about the Air Force. 

Herc presses his lips to Stacker’s innocently when he thinks Chuck is getting more soda. Mako and Chuck watch intently from the kitchen. Mako giggles. He frowns. 

 

x.

“What about Mum?”

“You know that I always loved your mother, Charlie.”

“It’s Chuck, old man. It’s been Chuck for, like, two years.”

“Quit calling me that. I am your father. Show me some damn respect.” 

“Whatever.”

“I’ll always care for your mother. She was my wife. She was the mother of my child. She was the first person I ever told I loved. You just have to understand.”

“Understand what?!”

“There is room for more than one person in someone’s heart. I don’t love your mother less if I love someone else.”

The door slams.

 

xi.

Chuck takes a few deep breaths. The air is cold and heavy. His trainers hit the track silently. He wanted to make this varsity track team if it killed him. 

As he rounds the first corner, one of the captains catches up to him. Her pink ponytail hits in the face.

“Heard your dad was a fag.” She says between heavy breaths. He doesn’t respond. “Did ya hear me or-?” 

Chuck just runs faster. She chases. He stops and swings for her stomach. He connects, and the air rushes out of her.

“Fuck you, mate.”

He doesn’t make the team.

 

xii.

He and Herc move in with Stacker and Mako. It’s chosen for practical reasons. The house actually has a garage, three bedrooms, and a real backyard rather than a little lot. Still, he’ll miss that bright yellow house.

It’s not a big move, requiring no international flights or moving trucks. It’s just the four of them moving boxes barefoot in the California summer and occasionally taking breaks for homemade strawberry lemonade on the porch.

It’s different, to sit down with all of them for every meal, but he likes it. This place feels like home.

 

xiii.

They get a dog from the local pound. They name it Maximillion, Max for short, after some guy from a cartoon Chuck and Mako used to watch when they were younger.

Stacker tolerates it. Herc likes it. Mako loves it. Chuck adores it. 

It’s not that he stops punching people, because Chuck will probably never stop that, but this dog is a good outlet for him. He learns to appreciate things, to let go of some of the bitterness, to show some responsibility. 

Stacker really can’t argue about that. He can argue about slobber on his floors though.

 

xiv.

Raleigh Becket moves in with the German students and that ex-convict down the street. 

Chuck finds out from the old woman who is now two houses down and surprisingly still alive that he’s from Alaska. His brother, Yancy, died when he was eighteen in a horrible car accident or something. He works in construction on the other side of the city, didn’t go to college, has no plans to either. He’s five years older than Chuck. He’s also completely smitten with Mako since the moment he saw her jogging. 

Chuck’s fingers itch for a fight.

 

xv.

He finally gets his fight with Raleigh. 

Mako kisses him because, well, she wants to after they go out for dinner one evening. She kisses him in the front lawn just as Chuck returns from his own jog. So Chuck does the thing that seems logical to him since it’s what he’s always done to his problems. He swings.

Unfortunately the old woman forgot to mention that Raleigh could hold his own in a fight.

Chuck was more than ready for round two while Mako held back Raleigh, and Herc practically picks him up, arms still swinging violently. 

 

xvi.

Mako likes to fight. Possibly more than he does. She’s smarter than he is, always has been. So she retaliates by inviting the pest to dinner two weeks later 

“Rayyyleigh,” Chuck drawls, heaping Mako’s famous Miso soup into his bowl. Raleigh ignores him. Stacker stares him down across the table. That man is downright terrifying when he wants to be.

“Sorry for beating your son’s ass, Mr. Hansen,” Raleigh confesses, sipping the beer he’s barely allowed to have. Herc and Stacker chuckle.

“He deserved it” responds Mako.

Herc and Stacker practically fall out of their chairs.

 

xvii.

They decide to become American citizens before he and Mako graduate from high school. They’ve been here long enough. 

So on the fourth of July, they pack into Herc’s truck decked out in red, white and blue to swear their allegiance to the US of A.

Of course the press asks Mako, sweet looking Mako, what it’s like to finally be an American and who she came here with today.

She slinks her arm into Chuck’s and smiles at the reporter. “I am here with my brother and my parents.” 

Chuck loves her, really he does.

 

xviii.

“Listen, mate.”

Raleigh stops banging the fence post into his own front yard. The two German students and a guy who looks more like a hipster than a convict shuffle across the porch for a better look.

“I’m sorry for starting that ugly...business. It’s just that-.” He pauses awkwardly. “Mako is my sister. We grew up together. I just want to keep her safe.” Another pause. “We cool?”

Raleigh swings his foot, connecting with the back of Chuck’s knees. He crashes to the ground in a clutter. The porch erupts into laughter. Raleigh grins.

“We cool.”

 

xix.

Stacker takes him out for dinner to his favorite restaurant for his favorite food, even lets him order dessert.

“What’s up, Stacks?” He asks as the waitress, whom he winks at, places an ice cream sundae in front of him.

“Nothing,” Stacker shrugs. “Can’t a man show some quasi-stepson some affection?”

Chuck laughs with a mouth full of ice cream. “Your idea of love was to send me to military camp.”

“It helped you.”

“Stacker.”

Stacker looks embarrassed and it’s almost refreshing to see him like that. “What’s your dad’s ring size, Chuck?”

“Eleven, why?” 

 

xx.

“Help me pick out the colors,” Mako tells him as he flops down on her bed next to Raleigh. “What do you think of khaki, yellow, and light blue?” 

“Colors for what?”

“Your dads’ wedding.” Raleigh chimes in.

Chuck furrows his brow. He scratches the back of his neck. “Gay marriage isn’t legal, mates. Prop Eight was a thing that happened, remember? I wrote a paper on it for Comparative Government sophomore year. ” 

“You failed that paper, and it was repealed today.” Mako throws the newspaper at him.

Chuck will deny to his dying day that he hugged Raleigh.

 

xxi.

“You know I’m always going to be proud of you, right son?” Herc asked as he patted down a stray hair on Chuck’s head. In the end, a year later, Mako won out. The two men stood on the balcony of the Saint Francis Hotel, clad in khaki suits with yellow ties. 

Chuck threw an arm around his father. “I know, old man.”

Herc chuckled. “I’ll let that one go today only because I’m getting married.” 

They stood in silence.

“I think Mum is smiling down on all of us today.” Chuck whispered. “I really do.”

**Author's Note:**

> some part of me believes that if chuck had lived, he would have grown into a significantly better person because age and perspective does that to people. or at least i tried to reflect that in this. chuck might be a little shit, but he isn't a terrible person.
> 
> this might have a companion or two. maybe like the same for mako or snapshots of stacker/herc because i love hot dads. let me know if you guys are into that or you wanna see that. 
> 
> oh and hit me up on tumblr. my username on the site is madrianas, so just plug that in front of the tumblr.com.
> 
> oh and edit: i'd be more than happy to do like a five hundred (or more) word drabble for whoever can guess what tv show i was talking about and what character max was named after in snap shot #13.


End file.
